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Referring expressions - VerwijswoordenStressed and unstressed pronouns - Beklemtoonde en onbeklemtoonde voornaamwoordenStressed forms of personal and possessive pronouns are often used in (formal) writing. However, in speech the stressed forms are only used for emphasis, for example to contrast two items. This will become clear from the following short dialogues:
In the first dialogue speaker A asks for speaker B's age using unstressed je. Speaker B then asks for speaker A's age for which (s)he needs to use the stressed personal pronoun jij. Note that in English too A's you would be unstressed and B' stressed in this situation. In the second dialogue speaker A hands B a coat which does not belong to him/her. Speaker B then needs to use the stressed possessive pronoun mijn. The following table shows stressed and unstressed forms of personal and possessive pronouns.
Note that not all personal and possessive pronouns have unstressed forms. The use of unstressed forms in writing is restricted. It is not acceptable in formal texts to use abbreviated forms like -ie (for hij), ‘t (for het) or m'n (for mijn)m It is possible to observe a preferred word order in which types of pronouns appear in a text. Basically, the further a pronoun appears from the >antecedent, the weaker its form. This is an important >>cohesive device. Look at the following example:
Hein is the antecedent, the person who is referred back to with pronouns. The first time he is referred to in this conversational turn, the demonstrative pronoun die is used, which is a strong pronoun. It is actually quite common in spoken Dutch for a demostrative pronoun to be used as a stressed form of the personal pronoun of the third person: dat for singular neuter (i.e. het) and die for singular and plural, masculine and feminine, subject and object. The second time Hein is referred to, the speaker uses the personal pronoun hij, a weaker pronoun than die but still a stressed form. The last time Hein is referred to, the speaker uses ie, the unstressed form of the pronoun hij in Dutch, and therefore the weakest possible form. A similar thing happens with het statistiekexamen. The first referral to the statistics exam is with the personal pronoun het (stressed), and the second referral is with 't, the unstressed form of the pronoun het. It is also possible to do this in writing, but only to some extent. Abbreviated forms such as -ie (for hij), ‘t (for het) and m'n (for mijn) are frowned upon in formal writing. Back to home.
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